News Archive 2007
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In The News
Power of Facebook affects law - Facebook, like Google, is now attempting to influence legislation such as copyright. Article from Michael Geist. (BBC News 18/12/07)
Talking to the world - Podcasting from radio broadcasts has been on the raise in Australia in 2007. (The Age 20/12/07). Podcasts of radio broadcasts can be reproduced for educational purposes under the Part VA licence. For more information see Using Podcasts for Educational Purposes
Warning -- This Product Contains DRM - Looks at whether or not producers of products with DRM (digital locks) should be required to provide information to consumers on what they can or cannot do with the material (InfoWorld.com 18/12/07)
Dilbert, the DMCA and the internet bubble video - Radiohead, who previously made their latest album, In Rainbows, available for download on a pay-what-you want basis have ceased the download. This article discusses whether or not this practice is a sustainable business model (Reseller News, 19/12/07)
Pirate hunt: Sydney cyber cafe raided - A cyber cafe has been raided for copyright infringement. The cafe alleged illegally download material from the internet that was then on sold to customers (The Age 18/12/07)
'Digital locks' future questioned - Looks at the use of Digital Rights Management (DRM) - digital locks - that may prevent people from using material that have legally purchases in way permitted under the Copyright Act (BBC News 10/12/07)
Stanford Law School’s Fair Use Project to Represent RDR Books in ‘Harry Potter’ Copyright Lawsuit
If the Copy Is an Artwork, Then What’s the Original? - Article from the New York Times looking at who artists often include artworks from other artists in their artwork. (NYTimes.com 06/12/07)
Photo-sharing lawsuit against Creative Commons dropped - the lawsuit against Creative Commons over photos available on Flickr.com that were use in Virgin Mobile's ad campaign has been dropped. (ITworld.com, 29/11/07).
Credit Where Credit Is Due - A new book from major publisher, John Wiley & Sons, has been accused of plagiarising a Wikipedia article. This article looks at the some of issues involved in using "free content" from sites like Wikipedia (NewsWeek.com 19/11/07)
Creative Commons - The ABC's Radio National Law Report program looks at Creative Commons, an alternative licencing scheme. (Radio National 20/11/07). See also What the Creative in 'Creative Commons' Really Means from PCmag.com (14/12/07)
Copyright & Behaviour - From ABC's Australia Talks looks at whether tougher penalties for copyright infringement are really going to affect consumer's behaviour. (Radio National 15/11/07)
First Australian conviction for piracy - An Australian man who made the Simpsons Movie available on the web for illegal download earlier this year has been found guilty of copyright infringement (Businessofcinema.com 16/11/07). See also Australia Talks program from the ABC on Copyright & Behaviour
How Big Media's Copyright Campaigns Threaten Internet Free Expression - Article from Cory Doctorow on how media companies are campaigning to extend the term of copyright and the potential impact this will have on users and creators. (Information Week, 05/11/07)
Infringus maximus! Rowling gets injunction against Harry Potter Lexicon - More on the Harry Potter copyright saga. (From Artstechnica.com, 14/11/07)
Armchair Thieves - Excellent article that looks at some of the issues involved in copying music, films & photos available via the internet. Also includes a useful introduction to copyright, and a look at on recent case studies involving material freely available online. (The Age 08/11/07)
Aussie maths whiz supercharges net - University of Melbourne research fellow Dr John Papandriopoulos has developed technology that will make broadband 100 times faster. Dr. Papandriopoulous is working with Melbourne Ventures to commercialise his intellectual property. (The Age 05/11/07)
Piracy not raiding CD sales - An international research report from the University of London has found that illegally music sharing actually increases CD sales. The study: The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada is available online. (The Age 06/11/07).
How Big Media's Copyright Campaigns Threaten Internet Free Expression - Article from Cory Doctorow looking at the competing issues of publishers and large copyright owners who wish to protect their exclusive rights over their copyright material and the rights of the community to use copyright for certain purposes in ways that are fair and reasonable, as well as creators & artists' right to freedom of expression. (Information Week 05/11/07)
Moral Rights Comes to Court - Australia's first court case of infringement of moral rights has been infringed. This article from Erin MacKay at the Arts Law Centre of Australia provides an excellent overview of the case. See also this overview from Michael Sing Lawyers.
Harry Potter And The Intellectual Property Lawsuit - JK Rowling & Warner Bros. are taking legal action against the publisher of a Harry Potter encyclopedia on the grounds that it infringes their intellectual property rights in the HP books and movies. (AFP 02/11/07)
Web 2.0: new internet, new etiquette . . . new law? - Discussion of the relevancy of copyright & privacy laws to use of Web 2.0 technology, e.g. Facebook. (The Times Online 23/10/07)
Consumer Voices in IP - Blog and presentations from the Consumers International World Congress "Increasing Consumers Voice in Intellectual Property Policy" held in Sydney. One of the presentations by Indrani Thuraisingham is on the cost and restrictions of DRM on academic journals. A really thought provoking presentation.
Why a rights robocop will never work - Cory Doctorow looks at the why the use of robots to police copyright infringement on website such as YouTube & MySpace is flawed. (The Guardian Unlimited, 30/10/07)
Wikipedia project is a class act - Some academics are now using wikipedia as an educational tool, either asking their students to correct inaccuracies on wikipedia entries or create their own wikipedia pages. See also: Wikipedia Becomes a Class Assignment (The Age 01/11/07) (The Age 31/10/07)
Wily pirates elude capture - The Australian Music Industry is considering taking action against individuals for illegal downloads unless Internet Service Providers agree to police piracy. (Sydney Morning Herald 29/10/07)
Is the blockbuster on the way out? - Is piracy killing the Hollywood blockbuster. Article by Cory Doctorow. (The Guardian Unlimited 30/10/07)
Film industry fights back with anti-piracy campaign - The Australian Film & Video Industry is launching a campaign to fight piracy. (The ABC 15/10/07)
Contracting Out Of The Copyright Infringement Exceptions - Article by Bronwyn Lee. Please note you will need to register to access this article.
Rowling sues Bengal village - JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter is taking legal action against an Indian village for copyright infringement because the villagers have replicated Hogwarts Castle as part of an Indian festival. Note - this is a video news report (The Age 12/10/07)
The cost of copyright - Looks at the Google/YouTube copyright battle and the cost of using filtering technology to prevent people from uploading copyright material to YouTube illegally. (The Age 11/10/07)
An alfresco is the same by any name - Porter Davis Homes is taking legal action against 4 other project home builders for alleging infringing copyright in Porter Davis house designs. (The Age 10/10/07)
Music industry has Aussie pirates in the crosshairs - Following successful legal action in US against a woman who uploaded songs to Kazaa illegally, the Australian Music Industry is threatening to crackdown on illegal downloads unless Internet Service Providers take more action to prevent copyright infringements (The Age 08/10/07)
Fined $US220,000 for sharing 24 songs - An American woman has been found guilty of copyright infringement for making music available for download on Kazaa. She has been fined $220,000. See also earlier article Copyright claims trial over music downloads begins (The Age 05/10/07)
Berkeley puts courses on YouTube - The University of California Berkeley is making its available on YouTube. (The Age 04/10/07)
Online censorship hurts us all - Author Cory Doctorow looks at the use of the DMCA/Take-Down notice process to censor material on the web rather than prevent copyright infringement. (Guardian Unlimited 02/10/07)
Copyright claims trial over music downloads begins - An American woman is being sued by several American record companies for making music available for download on Kazaa illegally. (The Age 03/10/07)
Use My Photo? Not Without Permission - Virgin Mobile Australia ran a web campaign using photographs sourced from Flickr and licenced under a Creative Commons Licence for commercial use. The Creative Commons licence means that Virgin Mobile did not have to ask the copyright owner, the photographer, for permission to use the photographer. However, the subject in the photo, Alison Chang, is suing Virgin because Virgin Mobile did not get her permission to use her image. (NY Times, 01/10/07)
Ad agency cribbed my lecture notes: professor - An academic from MIT alleges that a portion of his lecture has used as dialogue in television commercial by Ricoh Australia without his permission. (The Age 03/10/07)
No let-up on anti-piracy warpath - Microsoft has won a court case against an Australian company, Landmark Computers, for copyright infringement. Microsoft was awarded $70,000 in damages (The Age 02/10/07)
Private eyes on public data - Article looking at the use of and access to public sector data (The Age 25/09/07)
Prince sues internet sites for breaching his copyright - Prince is suing internet sites including YouTube, ebay & PirateBay for copyright infringement (The Independent 14/09/07)
Chinese text message writer wins copyright suit against Sohu.com - A Chinese court has ruled that SMS messages are subject to copyright. (International Herald Tribune 14/09/07)
Browse-wrap agreements boosted by US ruling - A US court has found that browse-wrap agreements that often accompany websites or software are binding. It is the user's responsibility to read the terms of uses for the website or software before they click on the agree to terms of use option. Failure to do so does not absolve the user. (Technollama, 14/09/07).
Rise of the armchair thieves - Excellent article looking at the rise of digital piracy and copyright infringement. Also discusses copyright in general (The Age 27/08/07)
Pirated Simpsons video filmed on mobile - A Sydney man has been charged with copyright infringement after he used a mobile phone to record the new Simpsons movie at an advanced screening and distributed the pirated recording on the internet. (The Age 17/08/07)
Digital pirate or entrepreneur? - Discussion on the future of p2p networking to be used for downloading copyright material legally. See also a related article, Developing a better world, on Phil Morle, who was previously chief technology officer at Kazaa, one of the p2p networks that was successfully sued for copyright infringement (The Age 14/08/07)
Copyright moves ignite coffee controversy - Nestle is attempting to register the image of a cup of coffee as a trademark, which would prevent other coffee companies or shops from using similar image (ABC Online 13/08/07).
Nine loses electronic program guide case - Channel 9 has lost it's court battle with Ice TV over an electronic program guide that will make it easier for people to time shift programs. (The Age 09/08/07) See also The Mouse that Roared (The Age 16/08/07)
The day the music died - Changes to the way royalties are applied to internet radio station could mean that many stations have to close. (The Age 09/08/07)
Hotels go to court over cost of music - Australia nightclubs and hotel industries have launched legal action over the recent increase in music licence fees by the Copyright Tribunal. (The Age 07/08/07).
Oh, what feelings run high in defence of brands - Toyota is considering suing Jetstar over the use of jump in Jetstar's advertising campaign. Toyota have trademarked their "Oh, what a feeling" jump. Article includes an interesting discussion on trademarking. (The Age 05/08/07).
Music royalty fees - Podcast from Radio National's Australia Talks program, discussing some of the issues involved in the Copyright Tribunal's recent decision to increase royalties paid to musicians for music played at nightclubs and hotels etc. Available as a stream from Radio National or as a download. (ABC Online)
Social Netwoks are Changing the Way in Which People Discover and Purchase Music - The 2007 Digital Music Survey has found that social networks, such as YouTube & MySpace are changing the way people use and access digital music. The survey also found that illegal downloads are widespread and likely to increase. See Survey finds pirate downloads at all-time high and set to rise from The Guardian newspaper.
Eminem raps Apple over downloads - Rapper Eminem is suing Apple over allowing downloads of his music from iTunes without his permission. (The Age 01/08/07)
Video fingerprinting due soon - Google is planning to use video finger printing technology to stop copyright material being loaded onto YouTube without the copyright owner's permission. (The Age 29/07/07)
Aussie dobbers help smash piracy syndicate - Microsoft & the FBI have broke a Chinese software counterfeiting operation. Australians who purchased the Windows Vista software believing it to be genuine provided information that helped with the operation. (The Age 26/07/07)
Lawsuit over dancing toddler clip - A clip of a dancing baby has been removed from YouTube on the grounds of copyright infringement for using the song Let's Go Crazy by Prince without permission from the copyright owner, Universal Music Publishing Group. The baby's mother is suing Universal Music arguing that she has not violated copyright and that Universal's actions violate her free speech. (The Age 26/07/07).
Backdown over mobile campaign - Virgin Mobile has backed down and removed photographs of people used in its online ad campaign without their permission. (The Australian 25/07/07)
Facebook faces fraud lawsuit - The popular social networking site, Facebook, is facing legal action over alleged copyright infringement. A similar rival website, ConnectU, allege that the concept & source code used by Facebook was originally developed for their website (The Age 25/07/07).
Virgin 'in the wrong' on ads - Virgin mobile is possibly facing legal action from people featured in its latest online ad campaign. Virgin has used photographs freely available from Flickr under a creative commons licence. Unfortunately, Virgin has not got permission of the people in the photograph to use their image. Many of the photos are accompanied by provocative that some people feel are derogatory. (The Australian 23/07/07)
Funny feeling about this plot - A new film starring Adam Sandler has similarities to the Paul Hogan film, Strange Bedfellows, leading to allegations of copyright infringement (The Age 18/07/07).
Once upon a time ... e-book revolution - This article looks at e-books and why e-books have not been as popular and as fast to catch up as other new technologies. Interest in e-books is growing particularly with projects such as Google Book Search and Project Gutenberg. (The Age 19/07/07)
Going for a song - Looks at the high level of piracy in Australia (we are second only to Britain) and why people are continuing to download illegal muisc and movies at the risk of on-the-spot fines of up to $93,500. (The Age 12/07/07)
The day the music in nightclubs got dearer - The Copyright Tribunal has approved an application by Phonographic Performance Company to raise music licence fees paid by nightclubs and dance parties. (The Age 11/07/07). See also Killing the Music, a blog from Leon Gettler at the Age including some interesting comments.
Your Rights at Play - Article looking Digital Rights Management (DRM). (The Australian 10/07/07)
Hollywood hates pirates, but can it use them? - Hollywood argues that piracy costs them big dollars in lost revenue. This article considers whether or not Hollywood actually benefits from the word-of-mouth buzz created from illegal downloads of new release movies. (News.com, 03/07/07)
Second Life Business sues for copyright infringement - Second Life, a virtual reality website, now has a real world copyright case on it's hands. Second Life, allows members to create characters, place and products to use in the virtual world. A Second Life member is suing for alleged copyright infringement in a bed that he created and sells in Second Life. (Reuters 03/07/07)
Seven's Beijing rights battle - Channel Seven holds the exclusive rights to broadcast the Bejing Olympics in 2008. Other media outlets such as Fairfax & News Limited are looking at ways that would allow them to include Olympic footage in their online news sites, including the Fair Dealing for Reporting the News provision in the Copyright Act. (The Australian 28/06/07)
US jails Aussie piracy kingpin - Hew Griffiths, the Australian extradited to the US to face trial over copyright infringement has been found guilty. (The Age 24/06/07)
The bleak side of Tintin - More on the Tintin/Bill Leak saga. This article includes Moulinsart's (Tintin's copyright owners) response to the case as well as a discussion on protecting Herge's moral rights and other incidents of piracy and copyright infringements relating to TinTin. (The Australian, 04/06/07).
Manchester Cathedral and Copyright - The Church of England has threatented to sue Sony about the use of a replication of Manchester Cathedral in a gunfighting game, "Resistance: The Fall of Man", for Playstation 3. This blog from Andrew Mills outlines whether or not copyright applies and has Sony infringed it.
AFL threatens to sue fan over video - An unofficial website for the Richmond Football Club has received a takedown notice from the AFL over unauthorised video clips of Richmond games recorded from TV broadcasts. The site's maintainer, a Richmond fan argues that she is entitled to show the video clips under fair dealing for criticism and review. (realfooty.com.au, 13/06/07)
Fighting torture with copyright - Interesting article suggesting that musicians could protest against human rights violations by the US Government by suing for copyright infringement. Music has been used to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay and permission from the copyright owner has not been given. Using music for torture also infringes the musicians' moral rights. (The Register www.theregister.co.uk)
Is 'Knocked Up' a knock-off? - The new movie Knocked Up is the subject of a new copyright lawsuit from a Canadian journalist who alleges that the film plagiarises her book Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be (The Age 07/06/07)
Satire, with apologies to Herge - An Australian cartoonist, Bill Leak, is facing legal action for facing legal action for alleged copyright infringement for using the TinTin cartoons to parody Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd. This article from The Australian looks at the issues in the case in light of the Copyright Amendments Act 2006, which now allows Fair Dealing for Parody and Satire (The Australian, 01/06/07)
Copyright and scientific papers - Blog from Professor Rob Knop discussing the issue of copyright in scientific papers and how scientific researchers can deal with it.
The battle over music piracy - Interesting article by Lev Grossman in Time magazine. (www.time.com 24/05/07)
Viacom v. YouTube: the Future of Online Video Sharing and Copyrights - Article from IBLA Internet Law News Portal discussing the copyright & intellectual property issues involved in the YouTube/Viacom legal battle.
Self-help gurus take plagiarism battle to court - A plagiarism dispute has developed over the best selling book, The Secret. Vanessa Bonnette alleges that Rhonda Byrne, author of The Secret, used ideas and concepts from her work, Empowerment for the New Era without permission. (Herald-Sun, 31/05/07)
Belgians do what PM can't - banish Tintin - Cartoonist Bill Leak from The Australian is facing legal action for alleged copyright infringement for using the TinTin cartoons to parody Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd. (new.com.au, 31/05/07)
Museums and misleading 'copyright' - Article by Michael Geist on p2pnet.net about the issues of museums and art galleries claiming copyright in images of public domain (i.e. where copyright has expired) artworks in their collection. This article has been prompted by Public Resources.org loading over 6,000 public domain images from the Smithsonian on to flickr.com to make them freely available.
Copyright laws caught in the Web - Article by Dr. Matthew Rimmer from ANU discussing copyright and Web 2.0 technologies such as YouTube, Wikipedia & MySpace. (ABC.net, 04/05/07)
Indian devotees tied up in knots over yoga copyright plan - A yoga instructor is attempting to copyright yoga positions, but other yoga teachers are protesting. (The Age, 26/05/07)
Barenaked Ladies: If I had a compulsory blanket music license - Steven Page, from the Barenecked Ladies, argues for a compulsory blanket music licence that would make digital music more readily available and reduce music piracy.
Aussie software pirate extradited - An Australian man has been extradited to the US to stand trial for circumventing, or "cracking", a Technological Protection Measure (TPM) which under the Copyright Amendments Act 2006 is a criminal offence (The Age 07/05/07)